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I think Howard can benefit greatly from being here in every aspect, way and form. If you look at it he will be loved here, he won't face the scrutiny that he will in LA, he can be treated by our medical staff and he will be playing along side his best friend. Additionally I don't think you can say that a player who took ORL to the finals is not a winner. Yes he has been struggling the past couple seasons but that can be attributed to his injuries so I don't see how having a starting line up of Dragic-Tucker-Beas-Smith-D12 is a bad thing. As a matter of fact that propels us to the #3 or maybe the #2 spot in the west depending on how Beas develops.

I think people are jumping at this because they it is our "quick fix". However, I'm leaning with you, Bish. I am a little apprehensive at going this route. High risk, high reward. No guaratee Smith and Howard will work well together.

I don't care if Howard isn't a winner. This would give us 4-5 years (the Lebron era) to compete for a ring. Say what you (anyone) want, Howard is still the most dominant big man when healthy. He's still not healthy right now. Imagine Dragic, a real scorer like Shabazz or McLemore (if this team will stop ****ing winning), Tucker, Smith, and Howard? That might be the best defensive lineup in the league.

If it didn't work out, then trade Howard and get young pieces back. Win/win

Beasley, Gortat, Brown
for
Smith
This means that we are DUMPING Beasleys contract, we will go into the summer with
Dragic, Duds, Scola, Morris, Marshal for a combined 19 million! now this is contingent on Fry retiring and him getting paid through insurance but coming off of our books.

2013 Salary cap is roughly 61 million

61- 19 = 42 million to spend on free agents. PLUS our draft picks!

Iggy- 40 mill 4 years. 10 per year
Mayo- 36 mill 4 years. 9 per year
Josh Smith- MAX . 15 first year

we would have 7 million Left to spend PLUS our MLE and our 3 picks to fill out our center spot. But we would look like this.
7 million we spend on GREG ODEN, THEN DRAFT LEN or ZELLER I WOULD OVE LEN
Dragic/Marshal
Mayo/Duds
Iggy/Tucket
Smith/Morris
Oden/Len

That team is under contract for 3 or 4 years. ATHLETIC defensivly, have a GO TO SCORER in MAYO. its NASTY

UPDATE: Regarding the Suns reported interest in Josh Smith, John Gambadoro of 620 KTAR tweets: "The stories about the Suns being interested in Josh Smith are ridiculous, there is zero interest there -ZERO! ... I triple checked it, Suns have NO interest in Josh Smith. And have never even had a conversation with ATL about him."

In the hypothetical scenario of getting Smith (and then extending him) we wont have anywhere near the cap space to offer another max deal. So, no Howard, no one like Iggy. We'd basically be working with the MLE.

Play out the season with O'neal as starting C and FAs filling gaps left (allowing us to suck enough to lose)

Sign (a healthy) Greg Oden to reasonable, long-term deal.

Draft McLemore and Mcadoo

That gives Marshall Back up PG minutes, Smith the bulk of PF minutes with Mcadoo backing up. Thats a young team that can compete while developing and has a possible stars in Oden and Mclemore, an all-star talent in Smith and Solid starting PG and bench.

UPDATE: Regarding the Suns reported interest in Josh Smith, John Gambadoro of 620 KTAR tweets: "The stories about the Suns being interested in Josh Smith are ridiculous, there is zero interest there -ZERO! ... I triple checked it, Suns have NO interest in Josh Smith. And have never even had a conversation with ATL about him."

This has got to be untrue! Here is the part that I cant believe. "and have never even had a conv. with atl about him". What? Either our front office is crap (which we knew) or this guy is lying. Smith is worth at least a phone call to find out what they are looking for.

I have always liked Josh, Im just not liking what he is saying about wanting a max contract and that he wants to test the free agent market.
Also I dont see D. Howard EVER wanting to come here. EVER. This team, front office, owner has turned a corner and it is in the wrong direction. So what Im saying is, trying to talk a top notch FA into coming here is a long shot. So as much as I hate to, I have to agree with the guys that say we gotta suck and hope we get a lucky pick.
So picking 28th is not what Im talking about. gotta be top 10, better top5.

This has got to be untrue! Here is the part that I cant believe. "and have never even had a conv. with atl about him". What? Either our front office is crap (which we knew) or this guy is lying. Smith is worth at least a phone call to find out what they are looking for.

I have always liked Josh, Im just not liking what he is saying about wanting a max contract and that he wants to test the free agent market.
Also I dont see D. Howard EVER wanting to come here. EVER. This team, front office, owner has turned a corner and it is in the wrong direction. So what Im saying is, trying to talk a top notch FA into coming here is a long shot. So as much as I hate to, I have to agree with the guys that say we gotta suck and hope we get a lucky pick.
So picking 28th is not what Im talking about. gotta be top 10, better top5.

Seeing as we are going no where and Josh Smith is about to be an unrestricted free agent... I can totally believe that our front office would not care how much or how little Atlanta is asking for and therefore had not even made a phone call.

Giving up anything in trade for Smith would be dumb. If we really want him he will be there, waiting to get overpaid, in free agency.

Seeing as we are going no where and Josh Smith is about to be an unrestricted free agent... I can totally believe that our front office would not care how much or how little Atlanta is asking for and therefore had not even made a phone call.

Giving up anything in trade for Smith would be dumb. If we really want him he will be there, waiting to get overpaid, in free agency.

LOL!!! Thats pretty funny coming from you. Have we had even one disagreement where I was not proven right?

Let me know when you're ready for me to cash in on yet another one of my predictions where I was proven absolutely right and you were "stunningly" incorrect... our sig bet on the Suns playoff aspirations.